The Gordon Research Conference on Protein-Derived Cofactors, Radicals and Quinones, to be held on January 13-18, 2002 at the Holiday Inn, Ventura, California, focuses on a field that addresses chemical, physical and physiological aspects of novel and newly emerging functional groups in biology. While there is a separate GRC on Enzymes, Coenzymes and Metabolic Pathways, this latter conference is commonly focused on protein engineering, drug design, principles of enzymatic function, etc. The need for a conference on Protein-Derived Cofactors, Radicals and Quinones comes from the explosive demonstration of new structures that can serve as enzyme cofactors and the implication of new physiological functions for these cofactors and their cognate enzymes. There is a core of scientists who created this new field, and they have now trained a second generation of students and postdoctoral researchers. The vigor of discipline is evidenced by the exponential growth in the papers published in this field, and the students trained during the last ten years.